The state Department of Transportation today approved a $33-million contract with McCourt Construction Co. to start extending the Silver Line from the Airport T stop to Chelsea. Much of the route will be in a busway built along the former Grand Junction railroad:

State officials expect the initial route, from the airport to Eastern Avenue in Chelsea, to be completed in two years.

Although that would be something to see. Ben Rey captured the scene at World Trade Center around 5:10 p.m., when an inbound bus kicked the bucket and another inbound bus was forced to squeeze around it to keep the Silver Line from becoming a Red Line on rubber.

A dead train at Sullivan Square around 8:20 a.m. quickly cascaded into commuting hell for Orange Line riders heading into the city from the north. At Malden, riders were told to abandon all hopeget on commuter rail. At Community College, riders were told to just go homewalk to North Station.

UPDATE: Transit Police now say the man they arrested was actually William Tilton's brother, James and that James is now in a heap of trouble both for the OUI arrest and for identifying himself as his brother when arrested.

William Tilton, 58, of Wilmington faces an OUI charge today following his arrest by Transit Police in the Silver Line tunnel off D Street early... Read more

Unfortunately for him, he wasn't able to figure out how to start the vehicle, parked at Silver Line Way in South Boston around 10 p.m. Or at least, that's how police were describing it on their radio as the incident unfolded.

CommonWealth reports not only is volume up on the Silver Line into the city - for which Massport says it will eventually pay so riders don't have to - but it's up on the Silver Line to the airport, for which people still have to pay.

MBTA Transit Police report arresting a woman they say stole a Silver Line inspector's bag, threw it into Fort Point Channel and then announced to officers that she couldn't help herself because she's a kleptomaniac.

Nyllabrii Raikou, 20, was arrested shortly after 10 p.m. yesterday on the Summer Street bridge - where they found her being pursued by the inspector. Police say the inspector... Read more

David notices Boston transportation services tend to be built in fives and then the powers that be eliminate one of them: There used to be five Green Line branches, five Silver Line routes and five terminals at Logan.

What's going on here? Do the planners have spooky Mickey Mouse hands? Does Boston overbuild then scale back? Shrinkage?

Seems that when a big convention is in town, the MBTA runs special Silver Line service to the airport straight from the convention center, rather than making people carry their bags on that long walk to the nearest Silver Line stop and crowding onto a bus there.